


Time Travel Nonsense

by ScurvyRobot



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Dubious Science, F/F, F/M, My First Work in This Fandom, Nerdiness, Other, POV First Person, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-16 13:04:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7269496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScurvyRobot/pseuds/ScurvyRobot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Told from the perspective of Alex Matthews, a time altering college student who meets a certain couple in a bar. This story takes place a few years after the events of Arcadia Bay. What antics will ensue? What adventures? I have absolutely no idea yet, but join me to find out. Come to the dark side ... we have cookies. :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mysterious Strangers

“And then I said ‘that’s no humboldt squid, that’s my uncle’!”

The other three at the table laughed half-heartedly at the punchline to Nathan’s latest joke. It was mostly out of nostalgia at this point. Nathan’s dry humor was a reminder of simpler times, when the four of us would spend our weekends at bars like this, before we all went our separate ways after college. Nathan and I left town for grad schools on opposite ends of the country. I think he was studying African literature or something equally exciting. James and Trevor, on the other hand, had stuck around Seattle, gotten wives and jobs, and had a two year head start on their nine-to-fives. Sure enough, everything about our group of friends is perfectly average.

Well, almost everything.

After a few minutes Trevor excused himself to step out for a smoke. I followed him across the room with my eyes, and landed on the bar. That was when I saw her. She was sat between a wall and a couple of men who were busy talking. Mousey brown hair framed her face. It’s narrow features emboldened her large blue eyes, which were locked directly onto my own.

A shy smile twisted across her freckled face before she turned away and took a long sip of her drink. A connection had been made. Or had I imagined it?

_Whack_

“Oww, what the fuck?” I said. Nathan was glaring at me from behind his nerdy, black rimmed glasses.

“C’mon, man, we just got here. You’re not drunk enough to be staring out into space yet.” he said with a smirk in his voice.

“Yet.”

“Tell me you at least kissed her, you slick little shit” He retorted.

Nathan was bright, he could roll with the punches and was perceptive enough to dish them out in whatever way needed. It had only been two days since we had both come back to town to celebrate the birth of Trevor’s son. The first child of any of us. Nathan and I were sharing a two bed hotel room because, well, we were broke college students. It was cool though, we had been roommates as undergrads and the sleeping arrangement was comfortable and nostalgic.

I had broken down the first night and told him about my power. It started during a differential equations exam about three months prior. I had been stuck on a problem for at least fifteen minutes. I knew that I knew how to do it, the professor knew that I knew how to do it, but goddamn if someone needed to tell my brain. I started to panic, anxiety was at the forefront of my thoughts. I threw my pencil across the room.

I tried to anyway.

The pencil stuck in the air a few feet away from me. Literally frozen in time.

The realization did little to ease my state of panic, it simply changed directions. I don’t know for how long I paced around the room after that, the clock on the wall didn’t budge. Eventually I calmed myself down enough to finish the test. I was in no state to do complex mathematics by that point, but the statues sitting at the other desks in the lecture hall were … obliging, with their answers. I wasn’t sure if cheating on a test was still against school rules if you did it outside of the flow of time. I’d have to double-check the syllabus.

It took me a while to figure out how to play time forward again. I waited a few minutes to see if anyone had noticed anything, and then turned in my exam.

It was like I had been given a new toy. I wanted to know everything about how it worked. I discovered that after about 20 minutes I would develop a splitting headache that would force me to let time continue forward. It felt like I was straining too hard to look at something far away. If I kept going for longer my vision would get blurry and my eyes would turn bloodshot. I was pretty sure that I would eventually pass out.

I hadn’t done anything particularly daring with my power for the rest of the semester. I took extra time on tests, I was never late to class. Mostly I just practiced. It was a bit like strengthening a muscle, or learning to problem solve. By the time I was there in the bar, with Nathan and my old friends, I could hold a pause for almost an hour.

“I didn’t!” I replied. Quietly enough to be a private conversation.

I glanced over at James, who seemed to be lost in his smartphone, he and Trevor were not yet ‘in the loop’ about my condition.

“Didn’t pause, or didn’t kiss her?”

“Both, dumbass. You seem pretty convinced that I live this secret life that nobody knows about.” This wasn’t the first time he had mentioned such a thing.

“I’m just saying that you could.” he replied, “Just, like shove your tongue down her throat. Then sit back down and nobody remembers. Do it for all of us brothers who don’t have the balls.” The wide smirk on his face let me know that he was joking. … Probably.

“Wow. The female population of the planet should consider themselves lucky that I’m not a sexual predator-slash-psychopath. Unlike someone I know.” _‘He’s just drunk and lonely. I don’t think he’s even had a girlfriend since junior year.’_ I thought.

Trevor returned from his smoke break, taking a seat across from me.

Nathan sighed, and spoke up. “Come on man, just go talk to her.”

James perked up and joined in “I think it’s a good idea man. She keeps looking over here.”

“Aww, yeah. You gonna hit that? Nate can crash at my place if you need that shitty hotel to yourself.” Trevor had gotten himself caught up on the situation apparently.

“That .. that’s so noble of you, Trevor.” Nathan replied, successfully keeping the majority of the sarcasm out of his voice at having been presumptively kicked out of his bed.

“No. Jesus. Fuck, Trevor. No.” I said. “Fine, fine. I _will_ go over and talk to her. Definitely because of this amazing pep talk, _not_ to escape you dipshits, not at all.” Trevor beamed at this. Nathan and James both gave a thumbs-up before they all continued talking as I walked away.

I crossed the room, weaving between tables on my way to the far end of the bar.

She still sat there, dressed in jeans and a white t shirt with ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ printed on the front in blue. She glanced over and saw me walking her way. After taking another sip of her drink she turned towards me, making eye contact.

I froze.

Or rather everything else did. I started pacing the floor in small circles.

I couldn’t help it. I had barely talked to anyone of the opposite sex in the last few months. Being a superhuman doesn’t leave much time for fraternization. Well okay, I have no excuses regarding time. Honestly, I just didn’t have the highest sex drive. Most of my time had been taken up by books and equations, and maybe I had become a bit of a social recluse lately.

_‘What should I say?’_ I had come over here with no plan. I had been pressured and -

“You could start with your name.”

_‘WHAT?! Hang on, I wasn’t the one who said that.’_

“WHAT?!” I looked toward the source of the voice. The brown haired girl was standing in front of me looking around at the frozen people, eyebrows furrowed over her narrowed blue eyes. She looked confused.

“I should be asking you.” she replied “I mean wow. I can only go back in time, you seem to have stopped it altogether. This is actually hella amazing.”

She looked at me with an inquisitive gaze. I stared back, absolutely gawking at what had just transpired.

“I’m Max” she said, holding out a hand as if a formal greeting was in order.

“Alex” I replied tentatively. “How the hell are you not frozen in place right now?”

Max put her hand down and made an apologetic face. “I’m not really sure. I can rewind time, so I guess I’m like, immune to changes in time or something.”

“You can _rewind_? How -”

“About six hours now.” She cut me off “Twenty dollars and thirty four cents. That’s how much you have in your pockets. Oh, and you have a Tardis on your keychain. How apropos.”

I was going to ask how far back she could go. After counting my change and finding that exact amount I said “How did you know that?”

“You showed me. About a minute ago. Well, a minute ago for me, it never happened for you.”

“Huh.” was all I could muster. _‘She had me check my pockets, rewound, and told me what was in them. Nothing too crazy, considering her lack of reaction to my own power.’_ “Well, that’s about all the proof I need.”

“Good” she said “So how long have you had your powers?”

“A few months now. How about you?”

She averted her gaze, now looking out over the motionless street beyond the windowed front of the bar. “Three years.”

“Wow.” I replied “What kinds of awesome stuff have you done in three years as a superhuman? Tell me you fight crime, because I _really_ wanna fight crime all of a sudden.”

A soft smile touched her lips at this, and she looked back at me. “No, nothing too fate altering for me. Mostly I’ve just avoided breaking all the dishes in my kitchen. My girlfriend and I like to keep it pretty low-key regarding timey-wimey stuff, so ..” at this she put one finger up to her lips in a ‘shush’ motion.

“Girlfriend ..” it was more of a statement than a question. Her face reddened, and I must’ve looked disappointed, because the next emotion to cross her face was definitely guilt.

“Yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean to .. erm, give you the wrong impression or anything, I just ..”

“It’s cool.” I said quickly “Just for a second there it felt like we made some kind of uh .. I dunno ..”

“Connection?”

“Yeah.” I said.

“Yeah” she replied “me too.” Max furrowed her brows thoughtfully “Maybe it’s just a uh, Time Lord thing, eh?”

“Maybe so.” I shrugged “No reason we can’t be friends though?”

She thought for a moment, then smiled widely “Sure. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“More like what’s the _best_ that could happen. We could rule the fabric of time and space.” I grinned back.

Her smile faded. "I don't really think that we could." She seemed distant, a tired sigh escaping her lips. “It can be hella dangerous, messing with the way things are supposed to happen. I won't tell you how to use your power, just be careful okay?”

The thousand-yard stare was now directed at me. “Yeah okay. Sure.”

We traded phone numbers.

_‘She has_ definitely _seen some shit.’_

I released my hold on reality. The world around us seemed to spontaneously burst into life as Max sat back down at her bar stool. After finishing off her drink with an elegant slurping sound, she looked toward the back of the bar and waved at someone. “I’ll talk to you later, it was good meeting you. I was beginning to think I was the only one.” She said.

“Yeah, same here.” I replied “Bye.” I started making my way back to my friends, nearly bumping shoulders with a tall, blue-haired girl in a black dress shirt who looked at me with inquisitive eyes as I passed. I turned around to see her take Max by the hand, kiss her, and walk out the door. They were talking. The bluenette stopped in her tracks and looked me in the eyes, face now registering alarm, then shook her head and continued walking.

“Get any digits?” It was Trevor’s voice.

“She’s gay.”

“Daaaaamn!” The table burst into laughter once more.


	2. Geeking out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone gets acquainted. Some stuff happens. You gotta read it to find out what it is.

“Up on melancholy hill, there’s a plastic tree."

“Are you here with me?”

"Just looking out on the day'"

"Of another dream."

I swiped left on the screen of the smartphone sitting on my tiny hotel nightstand. Melancholy Hill by Gorillaz stopped playing instantly. Looking at the top of the screen through blotches of remnant sleep, I could see that the time was 6:30. _'Ugh, I could really use a little more sleep after last night.'_

“Dude, what the f-”

_‘Sorry, Nate’_

I had closed my eyes tight, which aided me in strengthening my grip on this moment in reality, pausing time. I knew that I could get maybe 30 minutes more of restful shuteye - not sleep - before the need to concentrate on this pause would make trying to relax a lost cause.

And holy shit was I going to enjoy it.

Sure enough, after what seemed like about 30 minutes (not that I was really paying attention), the dull throbbing behind my eyes informed me that it was time to start my morning routine. I got up and started walking toward the small sink by the bathroom.

“-uck man, why are you even up at this hour?” I glanced over, he was looking at the bed I had just been in. “Wait, did you just .. ?” I grinned sheepishly at him. “I am never gonna get used to this.” He said as he plopped back down onto his pillow.

“What, that your best friend can bend the fabric of the universe to his will?” The question wasn’t really about the time power. I was pretty sure that our friendship had picked back up where we left off, but it takes two to tango.

“‘Best friend’ still, huh? You’re feeling pretty confident this morning. How do you know I didn’t make loads of friends in LA?” It was never too early for Nathan to pick up on social cues. He hadn’t changed much.

Nathan was taller than me, five foot eight, and had light brown hair and a slender face and body. He had grown up in Seattle, and only went to college after having been pressured by his parents. We hit it off right away after having been made roommates from day one. He was the extroverted social butterfly, who made sure I was never without a group of friends. And I was the shy studious science geek, who made sure he didn’t fail out of chemistry. Sure, we got in the occasional argument over who had to do the dishes, or who had to be the designated driver, but in the end we became the best of friends over those four years.

Once, the Starbucks on campus raised its prices. It was a tragedy, a real tale for the ages. People were just laying on the sidewalks staring up at the sky, unable to deal with life without caffeine. Okay, well maybe they were on the grass lounging between classes, but I understood the struggle. Nate and I took matters into our own hands. We snuck a hot plate from the chemistry lab and set it up in the lobby of the main science building. We then acquired some coffee grounds, a mortar and pestle, and a French press, and made a killing selling coffee to desperate nerds so they could handle the basic math that the world sometimes threw at them.

I was pretty sure ‘best friend’ still applied.

I smirked “Same way I know you’re already trying to figure out where you’re going to get your fancy nerd coffee.” I started to brush my teeth.

He smiled back “I guess I find it hard to argue with that logic.” he heard the sound of water running “Dude, tell me you’re not using that shitty hotel room drip machine. I will literally kill you.”

I spit minty sludge into the sink “Dude, fuck no! This is Seattle, we’re gonna get your waif hipster ass down to the nearest proper coffee shop soon, don’t worry."

* * *

 

Alex and I sat in the lobby of the local Starbucks, both quietly perusing our own thoughts. I had never been a man of faith. But this time travel nonsense was making me start to question some things. _‘How could it be anything other than magic? Sure, there’s plenty of math that can describe the way time works, but time travel is almost unanimously considered science fiction in the world of physics. There has to be some way to describe this other than magic. Maybe max knows something more? And what about fate? Could it be a coincidence that Max and I had met? Are we the only two who can manipulate time? I have to talk to her. Maybe she knows something more about all of this.'_

“Alex!”

The Barista Calling My Name snapped me out of my introspective mood. I walked over and grabbed my coffee. She had red hair and green eyes. 'Jenny' was written on her name tag, with a little heart at the end. She was cute.

“Thanks Jenny.” I said. It came off like I was trying to act like I knew her . Was that creepy? It felt a little creepy. _‘Sorry, Jenny’_

Thankfully, her only reply was to narrow her eyes and give a knowing smirk as she turned back to the espresso machine. I walked back to the table, where Nate was waiting with his own drink.

“So, then, what was this thing you wanted to tell me?” He queried as I took my seat across from him by the window.

A sigh escaped my nose, and I took a quick sip of my espresso-laden beverage. Yep, still too hot. “You remember that girl from last night? The one you guys had me go and talk to?”

“I think so. I was pretty gone last night to be honest. Wasn’t she gay?”

“Uh huh.” I replied “But I talked to her a bit, and it turns out we have something in common.”

“Oh, nice. Let me guess. A crush on David Tennant?”

“More like David Tennant as the tenth Doctor. And more like _she is_ the Doctor.” I looked directly at him now. “Also, shut the fuck up, he was by _far_ the best.”

“Okay, first: we’ll come back to this. Second: Wait _what?!_ You mean she has” he looked around and whispered “ _fucking time travel powers”_ more loudly “like you?”

“Yeah.” I chuckled “Except she can go back in time instead of just pause it. Like rewinding.”

“Dude, that’s crazy! .. Are you .. are you sure? How can you be sure?”

“I paused and she didn’t pause with everything else. Then she knew what question I was gonna ask before I asked it, and told me what was in my pockets without looking.” I replied. “Well, without me knowing she looked. She had to have looked just I don’t remember cause’ …” Suddenly having only the ability to pause time seemed like a lucky break. “Wow, how does she not have a perpetual headache?” _‘I wonder if she gets the same symptoms as me after rewinding too much?’_

Nate seemed to have noticed a question on my face. “Did you get her phone number?”

“Yeah”

“You should send her a message.”

“Now?” I asked “I don’t want to seem like, desperate or anything.”

“Alex.” Nate said loudly, then caught himself “Desperate for what, knowledge? C’mon man, you’re a freaking superhuman. You gotta give in to that craving for information sometimes. You have all the time in the world to learn anything you ever wanted.” His eyes narrowed “Dude, are you crushing on a gay girl?”

“No!” I replied. “I don’t think so. There is this weird bond that I felt towards her though. It’s really hard to explain, I’m pretty sure that it’s magical time shit.”

“Hmmm” Nate said, giving me a skeptical look. “Alright, then you should _definitely_ message her now.”

“Fine.” I said, taking out my phone.

 **ALEX:** Hey this is Alex. Hows it going?

“I’ll start out easy, and work my way into the crazy slowly.”

“Something tells me you don’t have to, but okay.” Nate said with a smirk.

A couple minutes passed of just sipping coffee and people watching before my phone buzzed in reply.

 **MAX:** a little freaked out after last night.

 **MAX:** wanna meet and talk about it?

 **ALEX:** yeah sounds good. today?

 **MAX:** today is good. Chloe has off work. where?

 **ALEX:** I currently reside in a pretty shitty hotel room.

 **MAX:** our place it is then.

 **ALEX:** Chloe? ur gf? blue hair?

 **MAX:** yup (^_^)

 **ALEX:** she looked scary

 **MAX:** she is. grr :)

 **MAX:** sending address

“We’re meeting them today.” I said after receiving the address. A few minutes later, we got up and left the building.

“Bye Alex!” Said the barista as I walked past the counter

I waved back shyly.

* * *

 

Chloe looked at Nathan with scrutiny. She was tall, with a narrow, pretty face and a full-sleeve tattoo that I wasn’t able to see beneath her shirt the previous night.

“Oh, umm, this is my friend, Nathan. He knows everything.” Had I really forgotten to mention that I was bringing him? “Well, everything that I know.” She turned her head to the side and looked at me as though confused. “Erm, everything about t-” I looked left and right. “Time travel, and stuff.” the bluenette snickered at this.

“Well, Nathan the all-knowing, welcome to my humble abode.” she turned her body and waved an arm in an ‘enter’ motion. “Oh, and I guess you can come too. Jeez, do you even have a super power?”

“Err, didn’t Max tell yo-”

“Yes, dork”

We had found Max and Chloe’s place, a loft apartment downtown, with relative ease. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. A secret underground lair, or a luxurious mansion maybe? Isn’t that what people with superpowers are supposed to have? I had them too, to be fair. And all I had to my name was a beat-up 90’s sedan and several thousand dollars in student debt.

It was around noon now. Nathan and I had spent most of our morning wandering the streets of Seattle without purpose or direction. We browsed through a few shops for books and clothes, had some lunch at a local deli, and talked to the various people of the city. Well, Nathan did most of the talking, while I stood by and enjoyed the interactions. Now, stepping out of an elevator after a rather long ride, we were entering the two girls’ apartment for the first time. It was actually pretty nice. Not a mansion or anything, I wasn’t even sure where I’d park my Batmobile, but it was spacious and well decorated with an appealing mixture of vintage and contemporary furnishings. The kitchen and living room were separated by a half-wall table, with a string of paper lanterns hanging above for lighting. In the living room sat two sofas facing a flat-screen TV, with a sliding door adjacent leading out to a balcony. Across from the kitchen was a hallway, which presumably led to a bedroom.

“Babe, we have company!” Chloe called out when we got inside.

After a few seconds Max emerged from the hallway “Hi Alex” she said before looking Nathan over. “Who’s this?”

“This is Nathan.” Chloe interjected. “He _knows_ things.” her eyes grew sarcastically wide. I chuckled at the joke I had inadvertently created.

“Wait, wait!” Nathan said, apparently playing along. He put two fingers to each temple as if concentrating. “Your name is Max, you rewind time. Aaand ..” He took a quick look around the apartment. There were pictures everywhere. Not just paintings and framed works, but polaroid photographs taped up around the walls. “You like art. Photography!” He finished.

Max nodded, impressed, then looked at me, then at Chloe and the two shared a look. “Wowsers, I guess we’re all special. I don’t know anything about you, though, no fair.”

“Ha, I guess.” replied Nathan, “I’m Alex’s friend from college, we were roommates. Now I go to UCLA.”

“Ooh, educated. What do you study?”

“East Asian Literature.”

“Exciting. Got a girlfriend?”

“Um .. no?”

“Pets? Dog? Cat?”

“Uhh .. I have a dog at my parents house here in Seattle.”

“Oh, how cute.” Max said. She turned and looked directly at me now. “That’ll do. Watch this.”

She narrowed her eyes and reached out her hand toward me. Confused, I reached my hand back, but didn’t complete the motion before I started to feel a very odd sensation welling up in my chest. It spread from there, filling my body with a strangely non-constricting tightness until all I could feel was a slight tingling across my skin. Then came the familiar pressure behind my eyes that typically happens when I bring time to a halt, which seemed to wash away the other sensation. Everything slowed to a halt gradually, unlike when I use my power to freeze everything all at once. The color of the world became more red, and then blue as I saw the last few moments pass in reverse faster than they had happened going forward. Then the reverse slowed to a stop, bringing another flash of red.

An actual stop, nothing was moving except for myself and Max, who was grinning at me a few feet away near the entrance to the hallway. “What did you think?” she asked “You were a lot easier to move than Chloe is.”

“That was amazing!” I exclaimed. “Like, wow, so different than when I freeze things. How did you do that? With me? Can I do that to people? And those colors. Was that Doppler shift? Did I just witness fucking Doppler shift from time being slowed down?” My mouth was gaping as I paced around between the kitchen and living room.

“What?” Max asked flatly “The colors do that every time I rewind, it’s totally normal.”

“Normal?” I asked in a similarly flat tone, looking at her. “Really?” Max laughed.

“We can talk about it later, just-” she waved her hand around. “Unpause them. Oohh! Wait!” She walked over to a nearby table and picked up a permanent marker, then uncapped it and proceeded to lift up Chloe’s shirt sleeve on her untattooed arm and draw something that looked like a heart with M+C in the middle.

“Dawww. My turn.” Max handed over the marker. I went with the much more subtle heart with a crudely drawn penis for my friend. Max and I assumed the positions we were in before and I allowed time to slip forward once more.

Nathan turned his head from a nearby wall to look at Max. “You like art. Photography!” He said once more.

Max smirked and replied. “Very impressive, oracle. Surely none can surpass your power of clairvoyance, but let me see ..” She chose to take the furrowed-brows, one finger pressed to the center of the forehead approach. “Your name is Nathan. You’re friends with Alex from college, but now go to UCLA and study .. “ She feigned heavy concentration “East Asian Literature. You’re single, but have a dog here in Seattle, which is where you were raised.” Max now looked at Nathan and smiled. “How’d I do?”

Nathan’s jaw dropped to the floor. “What the _actual fuck?_ ” He looked at me. “Did you tell her all that?”

“Dude, I didn’t even tell her you existed.”

“Oh thanks.” He replied sarcastically. “How did you know all that, then?” Suddenly I saw a slight change in max’s posture. Her arm was now outstretched from her side slightly, palm inverted to face Nathan and I. It was a subtle change, one I might not have noticed if I hadn’t been looking directly at her. Nathan, on the other hand, stumbled awkwardly backward, nearly falling but caught himself on the table behind him. Chloe immediately doubled over in laughter, eliciting a wide smile from Max. “Holy shit! You really fucking did it!” Nathan exclaimed. “I mean, I’ve seen Alex disappear and reappear and stuff, but that was insane!”

“I know, right!?” I joined in. “Did you see the colors? I think it was Doppler shifting, y’know like how bending space makes the wavelength of light longer and shorter.”

“Doppler? What are you a weather radar?” Nate replied with a skeptical look on his face.

Chloe seemed to get very excited at this. “It was! It hella was! I keep telling Max that. When it’s slow it turns red, and when it speeds up it turns blue, right? This is like, literal proof of special relativity.”

“You’re such a nerd, Che.” said Max

“You’re a nerd, geek.”

“Dork”

“Hippie”

“Punk”

“I fuckin’ love you.” Chloe finished. Max’s smile widened, if that were possible.

“I love you too.” she said a little shyly.

Nathan and I shared a wide-eyed ‘the fuck did I just witness?’ look.

“That was ..” Nathan started.

“So freaking adorable!” I finished, a little too excitedly. He slowly turned his head in my direction with a manufactured look of disappointment at my giddiness.

We made our way over to the couches, Max and Chloe on one and Nathan and I on the other, where we continued talking. I learned that Chloe worked at a very nice tattoo parlor in town, and that Max was a freelance photographer. They had been childhood best friends, and moved to Seattle together shortly after their relationship turned romantic. Chloe attended a community college in the city, while Max slowly made a name for herself at weddings and art auctions. Neither of their situations seemed to merit the relatively nice, probably expensive apartment we were now sitting in, but I made a mental note of it and didn’t push.

“You guys blaze?” Chloe asked at one point.

“Uh .. blaze?” I replied. I knew what it meant. Nathan and I had tried smoking pot over the summer a few years beforehand. I bought a little glass bowl from a smoke shop and we sat around getting high and watching cartoons. It was a fun way to spend the summer, but it hadn’t really caught on for either of us.

“Blaze, bake, partake in the devil’s lettuce, burn the midnight hash oil. Do you smoke weed, boy?”

“On occasion .. I guess.” I said nervously. Nathan snorted.

“It’s been a few years.” He said “But I’m down.”

 _‘Yeah, okay. It was pretty fun back then, I guess it sounds like a good way to break the ice on a new friendship.’_ I thought. “Sounds good.”

Chloe produced a fat, well-rolled joint, lit it, and passed it around. Nathan and I both coughed, and Chloe laughed at us, citing us as ‘noobs’ and stopping us after a couple of hits to keep us from overdoing it the first time back at it. It wasn't long before the old familiar buzz set in, along with a slowed perception of everything. The next few hours we spent watching Dr. Who to ‘celebrate the discovery of the last two remaining Time Lords’

“New or old?” Chloe had asked.

“You have both?” I replied

“New, because Alex here has a man crush on the 10th Doctor.” Nathan joked at my expense, having successfully gotten back to this.

Max gave a snorting laugh at this. “Don’t we all?”

“Hey!” Chloe said jealously, to which Max raised her eyebrows and looked a her girlfriend in feigned shock. “Not saying you’re wrong” Chloe grumbled.

I ended up having a nerdy sounding, in-depth conversation with Chloe about the possible physics regarding time travel. She was very smart, able to keep up with my college education while completely stoned. She didn’t know the math and background, but seemed to just have a really good intuitive idea of how everything worked, and quickly put two and two together when I put forth a new idea.

“What if time is a field?” She said. “And it has states, like forward, backward, and zero. And then you both have some kind of particles or structure in your brains that can change the local state of the field.”

“That wouldn’t explain how Max slows down and speeds up during her rewinds, if it was only three states.” I replied _‘Dammit, I really need to pee.’_

“Okay, so then instead of just states, it has an orientation. Like degrees on a circle. Max can change the orientation back to 180 degrees, and you can just hold it still at 90 degrees.” I was pretty sure that if I left and came back, Chloe would lose steam on this tangent that I wanted to hear.

“Max can reverse faster than the original flow forward. Does that mean that time doesn’t flow forward at full speed, like 0 degrees all the time?” ‘I got this’ “Hold that thought.”

“Wha-?” She froze mid-speech with a confused face, brows pulled together and mouth open a little. I rose from the couch and turned toward the hallway.

“Hey!” It was Max’s voice now. “I was watching that.”

“Oh shit, sorry.” I said. I was definitely still a little high. “I forgot you wouldn’t freeze.”

“What’re you doing?”

“Going pee.” I replied. “I didn’t want to interrupt her.” I motioned towards a frozen Chloe.

Max chuckled at the face Chloe was making. “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen her geek out that hard over something.”

Something caught my attention before I could formulate a reply. It wasn’t that I saw or heard anything. It wasn’t anything to do with any of the usual senses. It felt much more like the connection that happened when Max and I first saw each other. A directed flutter somewhere in the front of my brain. I turned my head in the direction that came naturally, towards the sliding glass door. I couldn’t see anything out of place. I turned back to Max, only to see her looking at me with the same concern I had on my own face. “Did you feel something just now?” I asked.

“Yeah, I did.” She replied. We both started walking toward the door. Outside on the balcony was a series of rectangular planters, some with what looked like kitchen herbs, some empty, and some with colorful flowers. In one flower planter directly across from the door was nestled a blue morpho butterfly.

The butterfly flapped its wings.

I turned to look at Max. She had stopped a pace behind me. Her face was ashen white, all color drained from her complexion, and her eyes were as wide as I could imagine them ever going. For a moment, the universe was held completely still. I turned back. The butterfly lifted itself from the planter and fluttered out of view.

Max’s breathing had become heavy. Her eyes frantically darted around the room between Chloe and the various photographs on the walls.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“... Shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, you guys make this writing stuff look easy.
> 
> Chapter two! Woo-hoo!
> 
> So it looks like I'm going into a little bit of sci-fi stuff. It feels like most of the things I've decided on about this world are physical constants, ha. I am, as you may have guessed, a total science nerd myself, but I'll try not to be too boring. :)
> 
> Thanks for reading, friends!


	3. Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A continuation on the last chapter, some more stuff is talked about. Little serious, pretty short, enjoy. :)

“It was probably nothing babe, I bet those things are just like one of the only wild animals that aren’t affected by time, same way that you guys aren’t.” Chloe was trying to comfort a very distressed Max.

“Yeah.” I put in. “I mean, if anything we could probably learn a lot from this.”

“No!” The frantic girl cried. “I don’t want to know anything that that fucking blue butterfly has to teach us. I’ve learned more than enough for one lifetime, I’m done!”

_ ‘That’s it.’  _ I thought.  _ ‘She isn’t telling me something. Something important. Should I really push this? I don’t want to upset her any more than she already is. I kind of already feel like this is my fault.’ _

“Wh- What do you mean?” I asked. Nathan sat on the couch still, not seeming quite sure what to make of the situation and just looking back and forth between Max and myself.

“That butterfly isn’t just an animal. It .. it shows up when bad stuff is going to happen. It’s like a prophet of doom.” Max told me.

“We don’t really know that.” Chloe said.

“What else could it be, Chlo?” The girl replied.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “What the hell happened to you guys?”

“Nothing!” Chloe growled.

“It sure as fuck doesn’t seem like nothing, with you calling it a ‘prophet of doom’, kinda sounds like something I should be in the loop on.”

“Don’t.” Chloe warned.

“Please guys, you’re freaking me out!” I said a bit desperately.

“I .. I can't.” Said Max.

“Can’t what?”

Max looked at me with pained, searching eyes for a long moment, as though she were unsure if she wanted to tell me something. Her eyes glistened with tears and then closed tightly, unable to maintain contact with my own as a mysterious phantom of emotional pain wracked my brain. The brunette raised her right arm toward me.  _ ‘I know what that is.’ _ In a flash of motion, I shot my own hand out in front, our palms facing. I felt the moment in time take hold between my temples as everything stopped. It was an uneasy pause, as though the moment was being pulled from my grip by something much stronger. I felt her presence now, more solidly. I focused on her as she let out a frustrated sob, and I let it slip away.

We were moving backward now. There had been no gradual slow, it was more sudden and abrupt. The last few moments passed before us as Max continued to cry. Just as suddenly, it stopped and played forward once more.

“Stop!” She screamed. Chloe nearly fell from her seat, her girlfriends’ rage having been a very sudden development from her perspective. Nathan sat bolt upright in his seat.

“Stop trying to run from me!” I replied

Max held out her hand once more. I knew what to expect this time and paused with more strength. The world held fast. And then begin to slip. Several moments passed in reverse once more. I pushed harder. Flashes of color filled the room for a split second. I fought back against the pulling of the universe. Concentration brought a dull ache to my head. Flashes again, but this time only in front of me. They seemed to have come from the space between mine and Max’s outstretched hands, a space which was now occupied by a tiny ball of rotating light. I looked to her eyes, wide and fully dilated, her tears reflected the rainbow orb, her eyes locked on mine with a hurt expression.

And then I felt it. All the pain and turmoil flowed from her eyes and into me through mine. I gasped, and she gasped. “Shit.” We said in unison. My vision started to go white as I felt myself losing consciousness. …

I lifted myself off the ground. Above me was a giant white wheel, it was on it’s side with an axle through the middle propping it up. I was climbing over shaped I couldn’t make out, looking for something. “Max!” a voice said. It was mine. “Max Caulfield!” The shapes came into focus. It was the debris of a destroyed city. The shape above me now revealed itself as a white spire poking through a massive observation deck, the glass of which had been shattered by its fall. The street before me was cracked and broken, the sidewalk shattered. Pieces of nearby collapsed building were strewn about, making my search difficult. “Max!” I shouted once more. I continued off in the direction of a semi-intact restaurant as my vision faded to white once more.

The vision shifted, I recognized it as a memory, but not one of my own. I was standing on a cliff side. There was a dull sensation of rain and wind on my skin. To my right was a lighthouse. I had a strong sense of impending doom, fear and determination filled my head as I looked to my left at Chloe, dressed in a leather jacket and white tank top. Ahead of me was a tornado, bigger than anything I’d ever seen. It was barreling down on a small fishing town on the oceanside.

“Max, you finally came back to me this week and…you did nothing but show me your love and friendship.” Chloe said, her voice breaking with an excess of emotion. “You made me smile and laugh, like I haven’t done in years. Wherever I end up after this…in whatever reality…all those moment between up were real, and they’ll always be ours.” She was near hysterics now. “No matter what you choose, I know you’ll make the right decision.” 

“Chloe…I can’t make this choice…” I looked up at Chloe. A wave of emotion washed over me, more than I had ever felt in my life, vision or otherwise. I understood what the choice meant. I could choose to save the town from the oncoming tornado, but the only way to do it was to sacrifice Chloe. I knew just as well that I would never have the strength to do so.

“No, Max. You’re the only one who can.” I knew what I had to do, but could hardly bring myself to realize what it was that I was doing. “Max…It’s time…” 

I looked down at a photo in my hands. It was an old fashioned thing, a polaroid much like the ones lining the wall of Max and Chloe’s apartment. Tears flowed freely down my face, my heart burst in my chest. I walked to the edge of the cliff, the weight of what I was about to do making each step feel like a marathon.

“Not anymore” I said. I tore the photo in half, leaving the pieces to float away on the gusting wind as the tornado began to make landfall.  _ ‘This is my fault’  _ I thought as waterfront shops began to break apart and add to the swirling cloud of debris.  _ ‘This is my fault … and it’s worth it.’ _ My vision faded again to white, and was replaced by the modest furnishings of the Pricefield apartment once more. I looked to Max, blood now flowing from her nose, who wore a look of sadness and confusion that surely mimicked my own. “I saw it, Max … I’m so sorry. I don’t even know why, just … that hurt you so much. No one should have to experience that kind of thing. I’m sorry I pushed you to tell me that.” Max fell to her knees, her head in her hands. I could feel the pull on the moment releasing with the tension in her body, and I let time resume.

“-at?” Chloe finished her earlier inquiry from when we were talking on the couch, now looking at Max in confusion. “Max, what the fuck?” Chloe got up and went over to Max, kneeling on the floor to hold the fragile girl in her arms.

Max continued sobbing on the floor. “The fucking butterfly Chlo. It’s back. Alex paused time and we saw that blue butterfly, only it could move.” She started to calm down a little from her fit of emotion.

“What? Are you okay? What happened to you two?” She asked, then her eyes widened as the implication of what Max had just told her set in. “Babe, it’s okay, it might not mean anything.”

“Yeah.” Max said wryly. “You said that.”

“I’m sorry.” I cut in. “This was my fault. I should go. C’mon Nate.” I turned to leave.

“What happened? What was your fault?” Chloe said. “Fucking time people, tell me what happened!” She was becoming flustered.

“Wait.” It was Max. She was now sitting next to Chloe again, wiping at her upper lip with a napkin. “What did you see?”

“I- I had a vision, I think.” Max looked at Chloe, whose eyes grew wide again. “It was seattle. It was all broken apart, I think the Space Needle had fallen down. I was looking for you.” I looked at Max. I really didn’t want to tell her about the other part, it seemed very personal, but it wouldn’t be fair to keep it a secret. I sighed. “And then ..”

Max and Chloe spoke in unison. “And then?”

“Um ..” I looked to Chloe, who returned my gaze with one of fear and confusion. Then at Max. “I saw something else. I think it was from your memory. There was a lighthouse. It was storming outside, and you had a photo. Chloe was there. You had to decide whether .. whether you would ...” I couldn’t maintain eye contact any longer. “Max, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.”

“Fuck!” Said the blue haired girl. “How the fuck did you see that?” She turned to Max. “Why the fuck would he see that?”

“I don’t know, Chlo.” The girl replied. She now looked at me. “I had a vision, too. It was really vague, though.” Chloe and I both looked at her in surprise. “Everything was dark except for one spot far up above me .. at least I think it was above me. Someone kept saying my name over and over again.”

“It was me.” I replied. “We had the same vision of the same thing at the same time? And shared memories?”

“I guess so.” Said Max.

“This is just way too much.” Nathan said, breaking his long silence. He had a look of bewilderment and seemed to have gone rather pale over the last few moments.

Chloe snorted. “Welcome to my life.”

“If you want out, now’s your chance.” I told him, with a wry smile.

“Oh hell no.” He replied. “I just need a minute to process all this … this.” He put a hand to his head, this time not pretending to be psychic. “That was Arcadia Bay, wasn’t it?” I remembered the news stories. A few years ago a town on the Oregon coast had been hit by a freak storm and wiped off the map.

Max sighed deeply and grabbed ahold of Chloe’s hand. “Yeah.” She said. “It was our hometown, where we met. And then where we were reunited after I had to leave for Seattle for five years.” Max and Chloe then looked into eachother’s eyes and shared a sad smile. I felt a twinge of remorse and was reminded of the immense pain that Max had inadvertently just shared with me.

“Max, I’m really really sorry I tried to fight you. That was a total dick move by me. We Time Lords need to stick together.” She sighed again.

“It’s okay I guess. I probably would’ve wanted to know if I was you.”

Chloe looked sternly at me, having been unaware of the minor battle that had ensued in her living room. “Hey! You’d better be nice to my girlfriend!”

“I will, I promise.” I replied. “Besides, it looks like we might need to be fighting together for the greater good.” I smiled lightly.

“Looks like Max and Chloe’s detective agency is back in business.” Chloe said, looking at her girlfriend.

“Aghem!” Nate put in.

“Fine.” The bluenette sighed. “Max and Chloe and Alex and Nate’s detective agency.”

“Wowser, has that ever got a ring to it.” Max said sarcastically.

“Shut up, let’s see you do better!”

Max furrowed her brow, then perked up and lifted a finger in an 'aha!' gesture. “SuperMax and the Amazing Alexander’s Time Bandito Squadron.” She said proudly.

We all gawked at her for a moment. Nate spoke first.

“Yeah, if you could just rewind that and say something different ..”

“Hey now!” I said defensively. “She obviously put some serious thought into this.” I grinned and began to giggle, before growing deathly serious. “Oh, and it’s Alex, never Alexander.” It was Chloe’s turn to laugh. In fact, she burst into hysterics. “What? What did I say?”

“Nothing  _ Alex. _ ” She replied. “Just make sure  _ Maxine _ knows how to properly pronounce your name.” Her laughter doubled. Max looked indignantly between Nathan and myself.

“If you ever call me that, I will kill your mother before you were born.” Max said, the same look of seriousness on her face, which was quickly replaced by a joking smile. We all laughed together now. I could tell that, despite a bit of a rocky start, this was going to be a great friendship.

* * *

 

I stood sleepless on the balcony of Nathan’s and my hotel room later that night, or the next morning, I didn’t care to check.  _ ‘There’s so much I still need to know. I’m sure they’ve not told me everything, but I don’t want to push any more. They’ll tell me in their own time. Still ,there’s something unnatural about our relationship. It’s like there’s a vibrance and understanding between Max and I, and even Chloe. I can’t put words to it but it’s like I know what they’re thinking.’  _

I finished off a glass of bourbon on the rocks I had poured myself earlier that night.

_ ‘And what about that vision? Is that actually going to come true? Can we stop Seattle from being destroyed? And when is it going to happen?’ _ I spent most of the night lost in thought, having no plans for the next day.

Eventually, I let myself drift off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anotha chapta! Took awhile to write, as I'm on vacation. I know it's a little short, but hope you enjoyed! :)

**Author's Note:**

> ***First time doing one of these, so be gentle :)***
> 
> Or don't. Be critical. Spit in my face. Tell me I'm terrible.  
> I haven't done anything resembling creative writing since high school 4 years ago, but I'm a big Life is Strange fan, and have been thinking about writing something with regards to the game. I'll keep updating this as I have the opportunity to write.


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